Hawks blast Sharks 5-2

The Hawks came into the game with three home ice losses in a row. The Sharks were coming in after a third period come from behind win the night before over the Dallas Stars. Crawford was in the Hawks nets and Niemi in the Sharks net.

The game opened with some changed up defensive pairings on the Hawks. The first pair had Keith with Van Riemsdyk and the 3rd pairing saw Seabrook with Rundblad. The only d pairing that stayed intact was the 2nd one of Hjalmarsson and Oduya. Whatever it was it worked as the defenseman exploded with three goals in the first.

The game opened with the Hawks dominating play but with no goals to show for all their effort. The chances they got were all from the outside once they got to the inside everything opened up.

The Hawks had three defenseman score goals. The first was Trevor Van Riemsdyk who got his first NHL goal after Jonathan Toews won a faceoff draw in the Sharks end and the puck went back to TVR at the point who blasted it past Niemi. Congrats Trevor on the first of hopefully many in your career.

Not to be left out of the part Brent Seabrook with his powerful shot got a great feed from Brad Richards and just blasted it from the high slot with net front presence to blind Niemi for a Hawks 2-0 lead.

Every defensive pairing scoring was complete when Niklas Hjalmarsson got a beautiful feed from Marian Hossa along the far boards to find number 4 with all the time and space in the world to walk in and get it past the Sharks netminder.

Joe Pavelski got sandwich goals one late in the first as he deflected it past Crawford after the Sharks won a faceoff in the Hawks zone to end the first period 3-1 Hawks. To illustrate how much the Hawks dominated the first period the shots on goal were 20-9 Hawks at the end of the period.

Pavelski scored again on a power play when Andrew Shaw got a double minor for high sticking Joe Thornton which tightened things up at 3-2 Hawks. For how much the Hawks dominated the first period the Sharks owned the second and the third period until late.

Bryan Bickell took Mueller to school on a great solo effort when he came from behind the Sharks net and turned and fired one off the post and in past Antti Niemi for a Hawks 4-2 lead. The Sharks pulled Niemi and Jonathan Toews ended the scoring with an empty netter for a 5-2 win.

The game however had some fireworks still to come not with scoring but with fights. First Kris Versteeg and Vlasic had a rumble and then Adam Burish and Jeremy Morin had a go. Something to watch for the next Sharks/Hawks games to see if the snarkiness continues.

Again this game demonstrated if you want to score you have to get to the net and establish net front presence either deflections or screens will occur either way that is the way to score in today’s NHL. Next game will be Tuesday at the United Center against the Lightning.

Three Stars of the game:

1. T. Van Riemsdyk

2. J. Pavelski

3. N. Hjalmarsson

Next game Tuesday, November 11, at 7:30 p.m. CDT vs the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tune in to CSN TV Chicago; or listen via radio on WGN AM720.